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Discuss the 20th century British writers who fucus on moral concers(Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, William Golding, Anthony Burgess, Iris Murdoch)
Emphasis on morality is not common in English novels. Joseph Conrad , 1857-1924 *A Polish aristocrat, born in the Polish Ukraine. Parents had to go to exile, intellectual family. Both parents suffered and died when he was 7 and 11. His father was a poet. Sent to Krakow, educated. When 16 he tried to make his dream – to be a sailor. First French ship. Ferved on French, Belgian, and British ships 74-969. A captain. *He started learning English when he was 16. Spoke French, dreamt Polish, wrote English. Found English very complicated, he started too late to learn it perfectly. *One of best stylist in English. Influenced by his French. J. Galsworthy was on his ship. Became very ill. Settled in Britain. *He brought to literature: 1. Life on ships, were a microcosms for him – symbolic, his ships are old. 2. Moral concerns – till then was literature concerned with manners. He puts people in extreme situations. They don’t take place in community. *He influenced Modernism, because he presents several points of view and uses symbol. *He never spoke English well, but he wrote fantastically as if he was a native speaker who discovered his language again in adulthood. *Short stories about sea, distant countries of British Empire. They never wee adventure stories but stories where the criteria were proved according to which people live where a person is forced to look into his own inside and look for truth which is hidden under the deposit of civilization. For such testes Conrad was equipped thanks to his life on the sea. *His special preeminence among modern novelists lies in his capacity to perceive the absurdity. The absence of meaning in the universe. *He holds in balance contradictory modes of experience. *His fiction embrances both problems of action and problems of conduct. *He displays a rare imaginative courage, without flinching from his nihilistic vision. *Arrived to Marseilles – his accounts in: The mirror of the Sea , 1906, A Personal Record , 1912, The Arrow of Gold , 1919 – a semi-autobiographical novel *Became a member of the Bohemian set in Marseilles. *Continued his sea career. In 1878 arrived in England speaking only few words of the language. Next 16 years worked as a merchant seaman. Particular voyages later used as material for novels. The Black Mate – a story 1886, for a magazine competition not accepted. Almayer’s Fooly – his first novel. Published in 1892. A story of decadence and breakdown, frustration. An Outcast of the Islands – very similar to Almayer. The Rescue – wrote on his honeymoon. Finished 25 years later. The Nigger of the “Narcissus” – first triumph. Based on his own journey on the Narcissus. The crew faces many kinds of hardship on board the Narcissus. During this hardship their physical as well as moral strength is tested. Typhoon , 1902 – in both he hints that ship’s discipline may represent only a form of human illusion by which men evade ultimate realities of an absurd universe – examined this in his later fictions with much honesty and subtlety: Lord Jim *Marlow is an old sea-wolf. Jim is on a British ship with 800 Pilgrims on board. There isn’t enough life boats. Ship starts sinking. Boats are enough for the crew only. They are dishonest and leave the ship. Only Jim stays. *Marlow is a captain in court in London. Next chapter, Jim appears there. Starts telling him his story “seems I jumped,” but the ship was saved by a passing French ship. It doesn’t minimize Jim’s guilt. He still feels guilty. His license of a maid is taken from him, but he has to redeem his guilt. Now Marlow helps him. He becomes a hero on an island of middle East. At least he is shot dead and has a famous funeral. *The nature of evil, of honor, of honesty, very unEnglish = honor is something inward. You’re born with it. The true nature of a person shows when extreme conditions are staged. *He brought the theme of sea, moral problems, further developed subjectivisation of novel. You never know everything, you have to put pieces of information together. *Lately called “relativism in gnozeology” (in Czech philosophy) = epistemology (in English philosophy) Nostromo - It is a depiction of a South American republic stirred by revolution. The Secret Agent *The story is based on an attempt to blow up Greenwich Observatory which took place in 1894. Did no damage but perpitrator was killed by a bomb. In the novel an agent, Mr. Verloc is present. His boss insists that Verloc should make the bomb. His brother-in-law is accidentally killed and Mrs. Verloc in fanatical affection kills her husband. Eventually commits suicide. *Ironically created melodrama. Parody of detective thriller. Verloc is a typical domestic bourgeois, with a strong distaste for work. His sence of security is shattered by the Greenwich outrage, and he feels that all his routines are under threat. Mrs. Verloc has married him to provide financial security for her (autistic) brother. *In each case an illusion of security is destroyed. The personal fate of these three characters reflects Conrad’s attitude to society. *The story is told in a sardonic tone. Difficult to analyze. Something destructive about the irony. Under Western Eyes, ''later novels: '' Chance, Victory, The Arrow of Gold The Rover, The Inheritors, Romance, The Secret Sharer ''- greatest short story Heart of Darkness * One of the first “modern” novels in English. Fascination, fear of unconscious, ideology of Empire criticized. Was thought a racist in America because of “exterminate all the brutes” by Sven Lindquist. * Masterpiece of his first writer’s period and a turn-point writing. Inspired by a break-point of his own life. Most critical of colonization of Congo by Belgium king Leopold. * Marlow is narrator of many of his short stories. * A short stay in Brussels full of nice phrases – premonition of future horror. * A travelogue partly. Partly an explanation of influences that were on Conrad when writing Heart of Darkness. Congo was owned by Belgium. The origin of word “Europe” is “darkness”. Other critics of colonialism: H. G. Wells * The theme of the book according to Conrad himself is “pure selfishness.” * Starts in London on the river Thames on a boat. Marlow is sitting, telling, the story has no kernel inside it. The narrator (is somebody else, not Marlow). Tells that at the beginning, it’s not going to show us any meaning. The original narrator is not Marlow – somebody is talking about him. Marlow gets to Congo and we can see whole colonized world with slaved natives. * Uses words for “light” and “darkness” everywhere. * Pilgrimage, hints of nightmare. * Marlow has to find Kurtz and bring him back. Kurtz wrote a letter ending “Exterminate all the brutes!” Marlow facing the graspingness of colonizers he meets. Concentrates on Kurtz – a man of whom everybody is afraid. Marlow is hated as the only one in this horrible enterprise who is close to him. During the boat-journey to Kurtz Marlow feels increasingly that he is under the control of the jungle and the dark shadows on the banks. When we see that Marlow feels ‘slight echo’ on surrounding darkness, we slowly find out what happened to Kurtz. We learn about the memorandum Marlow has read. Full of nice phrases addressed to Christian-philanthropic society, ending with obscure sentence, that all white people must seem like ‘gods’ to the savages: Exterminate the brutes. * He grew disgused by the greed of the ivory traders and their brutal exploitation of the natives. * At the Central Station, he finds that his boat has been mysteriously wrecked. When the repairs are completed, Marlow sets off on the two-month journey to Kurtz. * At the Inner Station, Marlow is met by a naive young Russian sailor. This man tells Marlow of Kurtz’s brilliance and the semi-divine power he has over the natives. The natives considered the whites supernatural. They sacrificed people to him. * Kurtz had become in his lonely place like God, bloodthirsty, grasping, revengeful. We don’t learn any details. Eventually Kurtz appears – ill, mad, half savage. He speaks about ‘his intended’ and ‘my ivory.’ He says that whole Europe helped to create Kurtz. * When he comes back to Brussels, he is totally changed. He sees a dull world of no moral values. He does not know what is right or wrong. * Conrad links Kurtz’s connection with everything gentle in our civilization when he visits his ‘intended.’ We still hear in his speech only ‘I, me, my.’ Marlow lies to his intended about the last words of Kurtz – The horror, the horror!” But we don’t doubt that the horror is not limited on this place in Africa only. We know it’s in all of us. * The worst thing is that they pretend Christian and civilization mission for nations but in fact it’s tyranny. Stealing and putting the rightfull owners to death. * His attitudes were conservative. He didn’t have any illusions about people and their motives of behavior, but his youth’s romanticism never abandoned him, because of it he went to the sea and he was still able to record exotics of travelling, the adventure of unknown places. * Conrad does not only stress the inhumanity but also vanity of all the doings of the colonizers. The vanity with which they bring their Europeans ideas to a place. Where they lose any sense. They call Africans ‘enemies’ or ‘criminals’ and they pay them in copper – it has no value for Africans. Graham Greene , 1904-1991 * Wrote 30s, 40s one of the best known modern novelists. *=He worked in The Times and in the Foreign Office, which helped him create convincing settings. Was concerned with spiritual struggle in a deteriorating world.= *=His works are characterized by vivid detail and a variety of settings. He mastered a detached objective portrayal of characters under various forms of stress.= *=He was influenced by the development of film. He uses short scenes and flashbacks.= *=He made his Catholic religion into philosophy and transmuted it into literature. In the center of his works, there is always a sinner and describes his development to divine grace. He is interested in the quest of God and the way to achieve grace by an evil man (anti-hero), a suffering man is always closer to divine grace than an agnostic doing only good deeds  this is Graham Greene’s paradox.= *=He used external plot for the inner life of characters. It is only a metaphor for what is happening inside.= * History is important in him but it’s only a metaphor for what happens inside. * Topical events in his works - Spanish Civil War, WW II., Cuba, Vietnam. =The Confidential Agent= * A parody on Mrs. Dalloway. Now social reality became to be important. Switch in literal sensibility, history becomes to e important too. Not only somebodies thoughts * An extract – a Spanish man on 1-day trip to London. Controversy peace in England and civil war in Spain. * Has some features of an American novelists. Uses film technique, short cuts, flashbacks, flashforwards. * A correspondent for New Republic. Was in Vietnam just when the French influence was declining and American influence was coming. In Cuba he was at the time of the political turnover: Our Man in Havana * His fiction is easy to read. Easy to make into a film. The End of the Affair * external plot: bombing of London, internal plot: Three people, writer Henry, wife Sara, lover – civil servant. In his works sinners according to Catholic mysticism, have bigger chance for divine grace. At the end Henry says he hates God – he refuse its existence, then he is closer to him. * Such emphasis on morality in not often in English novels, before him in Conrad, Greene identifies himself with the sinner. The Power and the Glory - A Catholic priest in Mexico, alcoholic, has a child. He’s a sinner but he suffers for it. He is closer to God. * It is set in Mexico in the 1920’s, at a time of religious persecution, which happens in the name of communist atheist revolution. Describes the last wanderings of an alchohilic priest as outlaw in his own state. He is determined to continue as a priest until captured, despite a sense of worthlessness. Is given the possibility to either leave the country or marry, but he does not do either. He is contrasted with several other characters. With Padre Jose, a priest who has accepted marriage and humiliation, with “the gringo”, a bank robber, murderer, and materialist, also on the run, with the lieutenant, portrayed as an idealist and “a good man”, pursuing the priest. * The priest has just reached safety over the border, then he draws back to Mexico because he is to offer the last rites to the dying gringo. The lieutenant corners him when he is drawn back, arrests him, and he is executed. * The final episode indicates that the church will survive its persecution. * According to Greene’s paradox the whisky priest is closer to redemption than the lieutenant. - He wrote “entertainments” and “serious novels” as he himself divided his works. '''Entertainments' - detective stories and thrillers A Gun for Sale - the central theme is man’s conflict between good and evil. Serious novels - they are concerned with the moral, social, and religious problems of the time. The Heart of the Matter * Scobie is a police major in an African colony, he is a good Catholic and he feels a strong sense of pity towards people. The sense of pity is stronger than his sense of duty. His faith in people makes him isolated in the contemporary world. He prefers to commit suicide rather than to continue to hurt other people. The End of the Affair - a wartime love affair with strong religious supernatural touches. The Quiet American - he criticizes the intrigues of American policy during the war in Vietnam. It is told by Fowler, an English reporter, who has been living with a Vietnamese girl. He refuses to be involved in the political conflicts, but he is forced to do it. The quiet American is Alden Pyle who comes to Vietnam on a special mission. Fowler becomes a witness to the evil resulting from Pyle’s naivity and blind self-confidence. He realizes how dangerous ignorance is in politics, makes arrangements for Pyle to be killed. Monsignor Quixote - a Catholic priest travels all over Spain with a communist chairman. It confronts their totally different attitudes. They are able to tolerate each other in the end. Iris Murdoch * Born 1919 in Dublin. * Spent her schooldays in London and Bristol. Received her university education at Oxford and later at Cambridge. Since 1948 she has been a Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, where for many years she has taught philosophy. She lives in Oxford with her husband, John Bayley. She suffers Alzheimer’s disease (from Writers & Work, by A. S. Byatt) * A novelist, her books have sold well. She has also been successfull as philosopher. Her first novel was published in the mid 1950s. Classed with “angry young men” but her own work is closer to Beckett or French existentialists. * Her novels are very sophisticated. She uses complicated plots. She tries to analyze questions of personal and political freedom, creativity, and religious belief. * Philosophical work. Relation between art and morals. Best-known piece of conceptual writing is Against Dryness. In 1961 wrote many studies on Sartre. Under the Net, The Flight from the Enchanter, * These two novels differ from all the later ones, fantasy-myth, philosophical fables. Themes are social, deal with proper and improper uses of power. The Bell , An Unofficial Rose ''- concern with the relationship between freedom and virtue, beauty and truth. * She frequently uses “machinery” to describe recognizable patterns of human behaviour. ''The Sacred and Profane Love Machine - exploration of the automatic elements involved in most love, which can grip and destroy. * Claims that Freud made an important discovery about the human mind which “might be called a doctrine of original sin.” Several novels which can be called “mythical”: A Severed Head , The Unicorn, The Time of the Angels - in these Murdoch’s structure holds more aesthetic power than the individual characters. Shows her interest in parodies of good, patterning, mechanism of understanding behaviour. * Literature, according to her, is a “battle between real people and images.” * She was very interested in Shakespeare’s plotting. Shakespearean novels: The Nice and the Good, A Fairly Honourable Defeat, The Black Prince First published book: Sartre, Romantic Rationalist, 1953 * An Unofficial Rose was filmed. * Bruno’s death. * The Black Prince arouse most critical interest. * A Severed Head * The Italian Girl were dramatized The Sandcastle * First published in 1957, Iris Murdoch’s third novel has the same inventiveness and imaginative distinction as the earlier two. The Sandcastle is about middle-aged, married schoolmaster, who falls violently in love with a young woman painter who has been commissioned to do a portrait of the school’s last headmaster. * Dedicated to her husband, her later works show concern with moral and critical principles of his book The Characters of Love. * Their relationship is complicated by his dominating yet pathetic wife, his two adolescent children, his political ambitions, and the girl’s own vocation as an artist. * An advanced study in passion and guilt. Adorned with great variety of character and spiced with some wildly funny incidents (the art - master’ annual lecture will not soon be forgotten). The Sandcastle has that sence of the paradoxical in human nature which all good tragi-comedies give us. * Characters: Mor (Bill), wife Nan, Rain - painter girl, children - Felicity and Donald, former schoolmaster - Demoyte, school St Bride at Surrey - South of London, Tim Burke - his friend, Angus - gypsy William Golding , 1911 * A novelist. Writes about the conflict between mind and instinct. Implies that both mind and instinct will destroy people unless it is controlled by their conscience. * Served in the Navy during World War II. The cruel experiences of the war influenced his opinions on the human race and society. He came to the persuasion that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” * His novels are in the form of moral fables exploring the evil in man beneath the surface of civilization. * Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. The Inheritors , '' ''Free Fall , '' The pyramid Lord of the Flies * His most famous novel. * Starts like a Desert Island but ends otherwise. In a kind of a future atomic war, a group of boys is stranded on a remote island after their plane crashes. They divide into fire keepers and hunters. One group of the boys, led by Ralph and Piggy, try to set up a democratically run society. Most of the boys eventually lose all moral purpose. Their attempt quickly fails and terror rules under the dictator Jack and develop savage ways. They soon hunt pigs on the island for food, but eventually develops into bloody-thirsty hunting for pleasure. * The two groups are soon at war. They kill Simon, who symbolizes innocence and purity and Piggy, who stands for common sense. It is only with the arrival of a shocked rescue officer that a mask of civilization returns. When he comes, the tyrants burst into tears and regret their deeds. Ralph and Piggy represent responsibility and honesty, Jack the desire for absolute power. * Civilization is only a covering for people’s natural violence which emerges when social restrictions are removed. It reaches high when the hunters destroy the conch shell – the symbol of unity and order, and they kill Piggy – Ralph’s ally and the intellectual voice. * Filled with powerful symbolism – the conch, he describes it with vivid realism. * A story of civilization from beginning to the end. Gives clear, unscrupulous picture of a man. His basic sin and violence which is hidden under the mask of calm lifestyle. * Very modern view in his time. It is an allegory of the intrinsic corruption of human nature. * It was inspired by a 19th-century adventure novel where the boys do form a positive society. ''The Inheritors - Homo Sapiens overruns and corrupts the innocent world of Neanderthal man. Pincher Martin - an account of a shipwrecked sailor, of a drowning man who sees his whole life before his eyes. The Spire - a legend about the medieval cathedral building in Salisbury. Rites of Passage - confronts the perspective of a snobbish aristocrat and a young clergyman.